YouTube your I-Search: Online Multimodal Research Presentations
Shawn Apostel, Michigan Technological University
Created for a sophomore-level general education composition/communication class, this project begins with an individually written preliminary research journal (see I-Search Journal Assignment link below). In the past, we’ve read excerpts of our I-Search to the rest of the class as a kind of research presentation. I noticed that although the topics were interesting, the excitement and enthusiasm that the student felt about the topic was hard to translate when reading a paper in a classroom context. Since my background is more focused on visual communication, we (the students and I) discussed ways to make these projects more engaging and effective.
This year we’ve been sharing our researched opinions through videos and posting them on YouTube. During the Fall semester, we published 8 to 10 minute videos in which students recorded themselves reading the paper while pictures and video illustrated their ideas and thoughts about the subject. They did not have to make an argument; this was accomplished with a flyer. Although these projects were more engaging than standing up in front of the class and reading our papers, we felt the videos were too long to truly engage our audience. We also felt that quality videos of that length were hard to accomplish given the time constraints of the syllabus and other assignments.
During the Spring semester, the project was changed with the above comments in mind. They composed two to five-minute videos, they had to make an argument in their video, and they did not have to record themselves reading from their I-Searches. This changed the purpose of the I-Search, so it became an informal research journal that told me the story of their research journey and how they formulated their argument.
Using YouTube changes the class in a couple of ways. First, the presentations still have the immediate audience of instructor and fellow students, yet posting the videos gives the projects a secondary audience of the YouTube viewing community. In many cases, this wider viewing audience changes the way students think about their project—they take them more seriously. Second, by posting the video, students think about their projects as something they can share with their friends and family. (You don’t see many students reading their friend’s research papers.) Third, after the class is over, students can still visit the projects they created in class to see how many views they acquired and to see if there are any new comments posted about their topic. In other words, they not only get feedback from me and from their fellow classmates, they get feedback from the YouTube viewing community.
YouTube your I-Search: Online Multimodal Research Presentations
Shawn Apostel, Michigan Technological UniversityCreated for a sophomore-level general education composition/communication class, this project begins with an individually written preliminary research journal (see I-Search Journal Assignment link below). In the past, we’ve read excerpts of our I-Search to the rest of the class as a kind of research presentation. I noticed that although the topics were interesting, the excitement and enthusiasm that the student felt about the topic was hard to translate when reading a paper in a classroom context. Since my background is more focused on visual communication, we (the students and I) discussed ways to make these projects more engaging and effective.
This year we’ve been sharing our researched opinions through videos and posting them on YouTube. During the Fall semester, we published 8 to 10 minute videos in which students recorded themselves reading the paper while pictures and video illustrated their ideas and thoughts about the subject. They did not have to make an argument; this was accomplished with a flyer. Although these projects were more engaging than standing up in front of the class and reading our papers, we felt the videos were too long to truly engage our audience. We also felt that quality videos of that length were hard to accomplish given the time constraints of the syllabus and other assignments.
During the Spring semester, the project was changed with the above comments in mind. They composed two to five-minute videos, they had to make an argument in their video, and they did not have to record themselves reading from their I-Searches. This changed the purpose of the I-Search, so it became an informal research journal that told me the story of their research journey and how they formulated their argument.
Using YouTube changes the class in a couple of ways. First, the presentations still have the immediate audience of instructor and fellow students, yet posting the videos gives the projects a secondary audience of the YouTube viewing community. In many cases, this wider viewing audience changes the way students think about their project—they take them more seriously. Second, by posting the video, students think about their projects as something they can share with their friends and family. (You don’t see many students reading their friend’s research papers.) Third, after the class is over, students can still visit the projects they created in class to see how many views they acquired and to see if there are any new comments posted about their topic. In other words, they not only get feedback from me and from their fellow classmates, they get feedback from the YouTube viewing community.
Products:
1. Preliminary research journal assignment (apostel_isearch_journal_assignment.doc)
2. YouTube assignment (apostel_youtube_assignment.doc)
3. Videos posted on YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=sapostel)
4. Two-page reflection assignment (apostel_youtube_assignment.doc)